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Heresy                                

NFT

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On 5^th December 2004, David Walliams was on the debate panel of David Baddiel’s Radio 4 show ‘Heresy’, which was recorded at ‘The Cricketers Club of London’, to be broadcast that following Thursday.

The evening began with quite a lot of queuing outside of the venue as we waited for the guests and the priority ticket holders to arrive. Standing about seventh in the queue, I saw the brisk arrival of David Walliams and Alan Davies (who arrived late with his girlfriend.)

After the doorwoman turned the vast majority of the potential audience away (as it was first come first serve tickets), we were finally admitted into the club. Even though I was seventh in the queue, I was given ticket number 47 which meant that only twenty people without priority tickets were let in!

Then, in the bar, we were asked to fill in a questionnaire, so that the show’s producers would have an idea about the audience’s opinions on the topics that were to be discussed later that evening. After a quick drink, my friend and I popped to the ‘ladies’, which were downstairs and so happened to be adjacent to the ‘VIP’ area where we saw David again! (He was wearing a lovely smart suit and bow tie. Very stylish!)

We were then at last let into the recording room, which looked very much like a cocktail lounge that could be used for little parties rather than a recording studio! The ‘room’ was really small (which got quite hot after a while) and it had the recording equipment resting on the bar at the back.

The audience must have only been about 60 people, but unfortunately, I had to sit on the back row (damn those priority tickets!) which meant I could only see Mr. Walliams’ hair!

Then, the producer welcomed us and talked about the process of the recording etc… soon after, David Baddiel entered and did a little ‘warm-up’ session himself, as they couldn’t afford to hire a ‘real warm-up person’. He then welcomed the panel who were, (left to right), Alan Davies (AKA. Jonathan Creek), Janet/Zoe (journalist- sorry, I cant decide on what her name was!), David Baddiel, Peter Bradshaw (film critic) and David Walliams.

The first ‘dummy run’ before the recording started was about ‘The Beatles’ which got us all in the debating mood.

The recording was then started. The first topic was "Should we know about the private lives of public figures?" The panel then referred to the recent stories surrounding the home secretary, David Blunkett. As the debate continued, one of the panel members mentioned about the stories surrounding Mr. Walliams’ private life in the number of tabloid newspapers. To which he decided to remain on the basis of "no comment". Overall, the main feeling from the panel and the audience was that things should only really be made aware to the general public if the alleged matter is a cause for concern and if it is recent (e.g. illegal, but not something like shoplifting 20 years ago).

The second topic was about how it is seen being " ‘naff’ to be middle class". Then quite a longwinded discussion ensued (most of which is a blur). Until, David Baddiel talked about how Frank Skinner had said that David Walliams was the poshest person he had ever met!

During the short break in the recording, one man left to use the restroom. The panel decided that it would be a good idea to pay a trick on him. So that when he returned, they would make it look like the whole topic of discussion was about drinking your urine! David Baddiel then said "when he returns, I will ask the question, ‘who in the audience would drink your urine?’ and I want everybody to raise their hands."

Recording was resumed, and third and final conversation topic of the evening was "The Libertines are the cutting edge of new music" David Walliams seemed to have quite a bit of knowledge on this subject (he mentioned Dizzie Rascal, Babyshambles, The Streets etc…). They then talked about rock stars and drugs. At one point, they mentioned Kurt Kobain and I remember having a coughing fit (listen out for it!!!!) They then asked for the audience’s opinion, one boy in the audience was quite upset that they were questioning the musical ability his favourite band.

Mr. Walliams’ was then half way through talking, when the man from the restroom returned! So he ended up saying "Oh yes I think it is…THAT WAS A VERY LONG WEE!" the poor man was so embarrassed. David Baddiel then said, "anyway, back to a third topic, ‘who would drink their own urine?’" Everybody’s' hands went up.

Then, the debate seemed to end and then the producer asked for any outtakes to be re-recorded. We then had to clap and make some sounds for the radio.

The panel and crew thanked the audience and told us that we were free to leave. The panel and the audience left at the same time, so to my delight, I was able to walk down the stairs with Mr. Walliams! (who seemed rather concerned as he was desperately trying to get his expensive phone to work- so I didn’t want to disturb him. I think he was trying to receive news about the award ceremony that was on at the same time, which I later found out that they won an award for.)

He then dashed out and off into the darkness of London in true celebrity style!
Overall, it was a fabulous show, the whole panel were fantastic. A brilliant evening of comedy and political discussion. I can’t wait to hear it (again)!

Jessica Shaw

A review of the 'Little Britain' interview at the National Film Theatre written by my friend KIRSTY PRESNELL

I was not aware of the “up close and personal with little Britain” interview until early that Friday morning. So to secure tickets my friend Jess and I started to queue for stand by tickets three hours before the start of the interview and luckily managed to get two in the third row.

The evening started with an introduction from Graeme Garden (the goodies) and a clip of Andy and Lou from the second series. The one with Lou’s new girlfriend “she pushed me”.

The stage was then joined by the geniuses behind Little Britain, David Walliams and Matt Lucas. They started by discussing how they first met and their education. Meeting at the national youth theatre with the ambition of becoming serious actors, David was in a production of the Tempest and Matt was moving the set around. They both studied drama at university from which David graduated.

A clip from an early sketch [spoofing] Tony Hart was shown, followed by the Rock Profile sketches of Gary Barlow and Howard Donald, and Geri Halliwell and George Micheal. Matt commented on how slim he looked in the clips and that his Mum, who was in the audience, would have a go at him about how much weight he had gained.

This led on to questions about the inspiration for the characters in their shows. Bitty was inspird by one of David’s ex girlfriends they dated for a week (one of his longer relationships) her friend still breast fed her 5 year old son, when he was hungry he would say Bitty which is a combination of the words breast and titty.

We then got the treat of seeing an early clip of [the Ralf Little Show spoofs of] Lou Reed and Andy Warhol. Andy has come a long way since then, he spoke in full sentences and was very hyperactive artist, but there was some evidence of the Andy we see on our screens today in the form of “yeah I know”.

This was followed by the original clip and creation of Anne. Filmed in the living room of Reese Shearsmith (League of Gentlemen) and created from their dressing up box. The footage was filmed by Matt and was totally improvised by David.

Matt and David were doing impressions of our favourite characters through out the evening and you could really see how much the pair were enjoying themselves. I don’t think Matt ever stopped smiling.

They talked about the original radio series (available to buy on CD) and they then showed a clip from a radio recording of Matt doing Vicky Pollard. They showed a montage of clips that influenced them in their carrier. This included some footage from the goodies, the young ones, Monty python, the two Ronnie’s, Harry Enfield and chums and Reeves and Mortimer.

The interview then moved back to the Little Britain characters. They spoke about Bubbles fat suit that cost them £25,000 and how they considered using Matt’s naked body. Why they didn’t have Ray McCooney and Jason in the current series? They ran out of money and could not afford to build the Ray McCooney set. And they filmed a sketch for Jason but it was too graphic and realistic to use (it should be in the second DVD).

They also mentioned that they had had no complaints about the characters, you cannot say rimming or fisting at 9.30 on BBC 1 so they have had to cut a whole Daffyd scene and make some miner changes for it to be shown on BBC 1.

Questions were then put to the audience. They were asked about doing any spin offs, David said he would like to do a spin off with Lou and Andy and Prime Minister and Sebastian; these would probably work quite well. Matt went in to detail of how they could do one about Marjorie rebuilding her life after her husband has left her and her son coming out. He even started to make up a theme tune.

They were also asked about the new script editor and if there was any great difference between the two. One lady suggested they could bring back past characters and if they couldn’t afford to rebuild the set they could put them in to other sketches and new scenarios.

Then my friend Jess asked David to marry her, despite me asking her not too. He turned her down.

After a couple more questions it ended and we got a sneak preview of the last episode in the current series. The whole event was a huge success I found it very interesting and Matt and David were hilarious. It was great to see the genius behind the series and I very much enjoyed it, despite being embarrassed by my friend.

Kirsty Presnell